Over 16 million have applied for unemployment benefits in the last 3 weeks. Coronavirus has disrupted economies worldwide. Been there several times in my career. You are not alone.
Here are steps for you to take:
1) Grieve Losing Your Job. Being unemployed is emotional. You miss your routine, paycheck, coworkers, job friends, and peace. Most of us have identity from our work. We plan vacations, visiting family, and how to pay for large improvements, cars or luxuries. Heck, now you worry about getting take out. This is a big loss up there with divorces or losing loved ones. Give yourself permission to go through the grieving process. Your mental health will thank you.
2) Apply for Unemployment Now. Normally unemployment only covers part of your expenses, but the CARES act adds $600 per week until July 31st and covers freelancers, gig workers and care givers if your employment is affected. Take advantage to give yourself more time to find work.
3) Find Taxi Jobs. These jobs are not careers, but ways to make money during your job search. You can stretch length of your unemployment benefits if you earn money during week. I worked for the Census Bureau twice during 2008-2009 recession. Supermarkets and delivery services are hiring now. Or start gig work while you look for jobs.
4) Take Survival Financial Steps Now. Look at where you are spending your money and write it down / enter in spreadsheet. Look where you can cut or postpone payments. Internet is necessary, premium movie channels & streaming service are not.
Payment Deferral - Forbearance is a written agreement between the borrower and the lender to move a negotiated number of payments to the end of a financial obligation, eliminating required installment payments now, and preserving your credit rating. Negotiate with your lender for a six-month forbearance (traditionally the standard), then resume payments after the term.
Freeze Your Memberships - Contact health clubs/spas, golf or tennis memberships, tanning, recreational clubs, social clubs, etc. requesting a freeze. This preserves you rejoining in the future when working your new job.
Mortgage Re-casting or Mortgage Re-amortization - If you have been in your house a while paying down balance or made extra payments, lenders recalculate your mortgage based on the new principal balance instead of refinancing. Avoid refinancing mortgage fees and underwriting expenses. I need to do this myself.
[Full credit to Heather Wagenhals “Unlock Your Wealth” and Jim Woods “Successful Investing” & “Intelligence Report” for ideas in this section]
5) Write Down All Your Skills - These are not job titles. Write down individual tasks or projects you have done on all jobs. The skills you used have lead to business successes.
Next you classify these skills in 3 categories - Those skills you enjoy & want to use, those skills you tolerate, and those skills you can’t stand. Preferably your next job will use most skills from the first 2 categories so you’ll be successful.
Reason for this exercise is you may be in a field that is changing or dying. Will be very competitive to find work there. New careers are created every year that use skills you already have. Identifying these skills will help you research alternative career paths forward.
The economy may evolve, but definitely will recover from Coronavirus effects. Future may be different for certain industries. Quite aware could be unemployed in several weeks myself working on commercial airplanes. Not too many travellers for near future, but in a couple years airlines will recover. Meantime other companies will grow and need our skills.
We have the resilience and talents to thrive in the future. Doesn’t mean we won’t be uncomfortable, but we have already overcome and learned much being uncomfortable. And on an Easter weekend we are reminded God is still in charge.
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